When the Emergency was imposed by Indira Gandhi, Jyoti Basu travelled from Kolkata to Jalandhar by train under an assumed name to avoid arrest, writes
Sarbjit Dhaliwal

ONE
of the most well-kept secrets of the life of Marxist patriarch Jyoti
Basu is that he spent three days at a farm of a senior Akali leader in
a village near Jalandhar to attend a meeting of the politburo of the
party.

Jyoti Basu was so much fascinated by farms in Punjab that he stayed most of the time at the farmhouse of top Akali leader Kuldip Singh Wadala

Way back in 1975, when
the Emergency was imposed by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi,
Comrade Jyoti Basu, who served as Chief Minister of West Bengal for a
record 24 years, travelled from Kolkata to Jalandhar in Kashmir Mail
under an assumed name to avoid arrest on the way. Other top leaders of
the CPM joined him at Jalandhar.

Jyoti Basu was so much
fascinated by farms in Punjab that he stayed most of the time at the
farmhouse of top Akali leader Kuldip Singh Wadala.

Wadala, who played host
not only to Jyoti Basu but also to other underground politburo members
of the CPM for three days at his Wadala village, in the outskirts of
Jalandhar, still cherishes the days he spent with Basu. EMS
Namboodripad was a scholarly person, says Wadala.

As Mrs Gandhi had
directed the police authorities to put all political leaders opposed
to her and the Emergency behind bars, the police was also on the
lookout for top CPM leaders. Wadala was told by his long-time friend
Harkishan Singh Surjeet to make arrangements for holding the politburo
meeting of the party at a place where the police should not be able to
lay hands on them. Arrangements were made by Wadala at his residence
in the village to host the meeting. P. Sundarayya, first general
secretary of the party, who resigned in 1978 after the Emergency,
making way for Namboodripad to replace him, P. Ramamurthi, M.
Basavapunniah and A. K. Nayanar had also attended the meeting.

The comrades held
discussions on the Emergency and related political issues at Wadala’s
residence. Jyoti was surprised how Wadala was bearing the expenditure
on playing host to such a good number high profile persons. So he
asked Wadala about the source of his income. ‘‘I told him that I
own a good chunk of land,’’ said Wadala, adding that Basu
expressed the desire to spend time at the farm.

After such meetings,
Basu spent most of the time at the farm. In fact, Basu also asked
Wadala to arrange for a photographer as he wanted to take the photos
back to West Bengal. Basu got himself photographed in front of a
tubewell along with family members of Wadala.

‘‘At night, I used
to transport them to different places to stay with my close relatives
to ensure that in case of any police raid, all should not be arrested
together,’’ said Wadala, who was later arrested because the Akalis
had launched a morcha (agitation) against the Emergency.

After spending three
days, the comrades left for different destinations.

When the police
conducted a raid to arrest Surjeet from Bundala village, near Nakodar,
on the night of June 26, 1975, when the Emergency was imposed, Surjeet’s
ankle got sprained when he jumped from his rooftop to avoid arrest.

The police failed to
arrest him. Said Wadala: " The next day he rang me up from some
friend’s house, and I brought him to my place to get his ankle
bandaged. A few days later Surjeet recovered. He disguised himself,
and presented the look of a farmer. I took him to a farmhouse near
Saharanpur in UP. He stayed there with a grandson of Baba Karam Singh
Cheema, a freedom fighter.

Those were the times
when strong rivals in the political arena used to be otherwise good
friends. Politics at that time was a commitment to serve people and
the country. Today it is a lucrative business."